To insure my dog today and claim this week?

[Swerab]

My dog has hurt his paw . I can't see anything immediately wrong with it but its clearly hurting him.

He's not insured. If I take out insurance today can I claim straight away?

Grindelwaldswand Maybe postcode dependent - parents pet insurance was always much cheaper than ours for cats and dogs (both covering bog standard rescue animals, no fancy pedigrees or dodgy history).

also check the top of his feet, between his toes. Mine gets grass seeds in there.

petplan cost us £30 a month and we paid for years and then stopped it
My friend is/was paying about £50 a month for Petplan for her golden retriever and when the dog needed two operations to remove cancerous lumps at Christmas, they were wonderful and there were no quibbles and the bill was £2,500.

Also because the dog is ensured on a "for life" policy, she is entitled to £4,000 worth of treatment per condition per year.

If she was only on an annual policy once this year's policy ends, no one else would cover the dog for cancer but with Petplan the £4,000 limit just gets reset to £0 at renewal.

I was paying £70 per month for my dog when I decided to stop and just save the money. Pet insurance can be very expensive and I found the vet charges went down significantly once I came off insurance. (tiny suspicion I was paying for a lot of unnecessary tests etc before!)

My vets had a payment plan that covered third party, vaccinations, nail clipping and an annual check for about £11 per month. It also gave 20% discount on other costs.

There is a period of time from you applying for the insurance and inception of the policy. You will also be expected to pay an excess (usually between 50 and 80 pounds or more depending on your policy). You won't be able to claim for this condition.

I just had a quote from petplan for perfectly healthy 12 week old puppy and it's £31 a month. Not one quote I've had is less than that.
Only issue I think with not insuring my dog is what if he causes an accident?

What breed is the dog? Do you have a photo of the paw?

It saved us money and if anything bad happened to our dog we would pay out of our savings or on a credit card
It sounds like you have made your decision after carefully thinking about it and have your back-up plan to pay for treatment.

However some people do not properly anticipate just how expensive vet's bills can be.

My neighbour was paying £50 a month for her dog and that is a lot of money, £600 a year.

However already this year she has had £2,500 worth of treatment paid for.

The wonderful thing about being insured is that she didn't have to worry about the cost of every little thing on the bill which the vet offered.

Believe it or not the vet said that other people sometimes have to decline certain treatments even though they want them just because they are too expensive.

I am pretty sure that there is no pet policy that would cover third party damages done by a dog lulu the costs would be prohibitive. They are for illness of the animal. Accidents with injuries to the animal and some have kennelling fees if you are ill and/or other extraneous matters (including special prescription diets etc.) but not liability.

Hope it gets sorted soon - if you come from a family of vets, could one of them not take a quick look for you?

The Pet Plan I've had for my dog was £54 a month previously for years and years .... yes I know and we are pretty badly off, but my reasoning was that I couldn't lay out anything like the vet would charge if anything happened to him - he's 12 now and about 4 years ago I managed to reduce it to £44 .... still horrendous but it's a life cover which makes it so expensive

I just had a quote from petplan for perfectly healthy 12 week old puppy and it's £31 a month
Surely you took that into account when you got the puppy??

Also with Petplan that price might be for their "for life" policy, which means that as long as there are never any breaks in cover they will insure the dog regardless of any pre-existing conditions for the whole of its life.

£31 is really not that expensive.

sorry that wasnt me that was a quote from another poster - I can't do the bold thingy

but I have had the vet out so many times for my horses I tend to go with the wait 2 or 3 days advice anyway!!

petplan only costs about £5 a month for a healthy dog

Nope, try again.

10 week old puppy, perfectly healthy, no pre-existing conditions, £32 a month.

I've just taken Petplan out for my dog and it's £41 a month.

As for the paw, I've been know to put a teeny bit of germolene on mine from time to time - he has hayfever and itches and bites and scratches himself until he's sore even with piriton twice a day, so the germolene has helped sometimes to ward off any infection

£41 a month is nuts. My horse is only £60 a month and they are far far more expensive to treat.

I am pretty sure that there is no pet policy that would cover third party damages done by a dog lulu the costs would be prohibitive
Lots of pet policies cover third party liability.

Petplan's 12 month policy covers £1 million per incident for third party liability and their "for life" policy covers £2 million per incident for third party liability.

I am going to:
soak it
dry it
put dermagel on it
wrap it with the poultice and bandage and see what happens.

There are several different life plans at Pet Plan but I wanted one where if he got diabetes or any other longterm problem it would be covered properly ... a neighbour of mine years ago had a dog who got gangrene in his leg and it cost her about £1300 in visits and hibiscrub in about a month and there is no way I could afford to lay out anything near that ... so many people end up putting otherwise healthy animals down because the vets bills can be extortionate, so although monthly it adds up to silly amounts per year, it's just about manageable and gives me peace of mind

petplan only costs about £5 a month for a healthy dog

Does it buggery!

I pay £35/month for each of mine and DD past nearly £60 for her dane.

I havent read all the posts regarding insurance. Petplan is good, i use Petplan Equine for my horses.

If i called the vet out every time the horse was a bit lame or off, i would be bankrupt and homeless! Years of experience tells me if there isn't anything blindingly obvious and the vet cannot see anymore than me, i would watch the animal for a couple of days. If its foot related i always poultice as a matter of course, keep them in, rest the area and if it doesn't get better in a couple of days then i will call the vet.

I would apply the same principle to my dogs or cats

I am pretty sure that there is no pet policy that would cover third party damages done by a dog lulu the costs would be prohibitive.

Of course they do, cover of £1 million upwards is one of the reasons most people insure pets.

For those who only want third party cover and are prepared to cover the cost of vet bills, membership of the Dogs Trust at £25 a year gives third party insurance for up to 10 dogs.

Vet bills are very area dependent, and living in Berkshire - I wouldn't be without insurance. At least that way, I can make all decisions on whether or not to treat an issue on basis of the dog's welfare, without worrying about the cost.